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Updated: July 12, 2025
When Robert Hart joined the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, the service was already four years old. 1854 the very year he passed through Shanghai on his way to Ningpo saw its beginning as an international institution.
Improved Prospects Advance on Canton Bombardment and Capture Joint Tribunal Maintenance of Order Canton Prisons Move Northward Swatow Mr. Burns Foochow Ningpo Chusan Potou Shanghae Missionaries. Advance to the Peiho Taking of the Forts The Peiho River Tientsin Negotiations The Treaty The Eight of Sending a Minister to Pekin Return southward Sails for Japan.
It appears that my lot is the first of the eight, and therefore the best that can be got! Ningpo. March 18th. We arrived here yesterday, and I have been walking both days about the town with Mr. Meadows, the author, who is vice-consul here. I am disappointed with the city, of which I had heard a great deal. But the people are even more amiable than at any other place I have visited.
"The entire city and suburbs lay beneath us; the valley of Ningpo, with its hamlets and villages, hills and rivers, on every side; and away in the distance, on the one hand chains of lofty mountains, the sea, with all its islands, on the other." Dr. Milne asserts that Ningpo is 10,000 years old, and that the pagoda was raised antecedent to the city being built.
The ships approached till they touched the ground, when they opened their fire, and a breach was soon effected in the citadel. On this it was stormed by the blue-jackets and marines, when the garrison effected their escape into the city, the walls of which were then scaled in two places, and Chinghai was captured. Ningpo, higher up the river, was taken with even less difficulty.
The victory at Chinhai was followed by the unopposed occupation of the important city of Ningpo, where the inhabitants shut themselves up in their houses, and wrote on their doors "Submissive People." Ningpo was put to ransom and the authorities informed that unless they paid the sum within a certain time their city would be handed over to pillage and destruction.
The arrival of further troops and warships from Europe enabled the English commanders to adopt a more determined and uncompromising attitude, and the capture of Ningpo would have been followed up at once but for the disastrous events in Afghanistan, which distracted attention from the Chinese question, and delayed its settlement.
We found that he had served on board one of our vessels during the Chinese war, so we hired the young traitor as a cicerone during our stay at Ningpo, and ordered him to follow us to the theatre, which as usual was a temple or joss-house. We found it crowded with Chinese, and the actors were performing on a raised platform.
However, I daresay that these missionaries do good, for the Chinese are not fanatics, and it must do them a benefit to see among them some foreigners who are not engaged exclusively in money-making. March 16th. We are at anchor off Chinhae at the mouth of the river which leads to Ningpo. We have just returned from a walk on shore.
There we obtained a covered Chinese boat, in which we put our beds and blankets, intending to live on board her during our stay at Ningpo. Starting with a fair wind and tide, by noon we were within five miles of the city, which is built about forty miles up the river.
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